Portrait of Joseph Stalin
Radical left · Leader · From history

Joseph Stalin

Soviet leader, 1920s to 1953

Regime responsible for mass killings and famine

Industrialized the USSR at breakneck speed and helped defeat Nazi Germany. His forced collectivization, Great Purge and Gulag camps killed millions.

Joseph Stalin sits in the left-authoritarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: strongly state-led and strongly authoritarian. The clearest positions are strongly state-led on economy, strongly authoritarian on liberty and authority and strongly growth-first on environment. The profile is close to the middle on institutions.

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Where Joseph Stalin sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyStrongly state-led
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityStrongly authoritarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureStrongly traditional
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationLeaning nationalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentStrongly growth-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyStrongly tech-optimist
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceStrongly strength-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsCentered on institutions
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionStrongly secular
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismStrongly interventionist
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Joseph Stalin

Kim Jong Un Supreme Leader of North Korea, 2011 to present96%Gamal Abdel Nasser President of Egypt, 1956 to 197089%Adolf Hitler Chancellor and Führer of Germany, 1933 to 194588%Fidel Castro Leader of Cuba, 1959 to 200887%Saddam Hussein President of Iraq, 1979 to 200387%Mao Zedong Chairman of the Communist Party of China, 1943 to 197687%Ho Chi Minh President of North Vietnam, 1945 to 196986%Josip Broz Tito Leader of Yugoslavia, 1945 to 198086%

People furthest from Joseph Stalin

Leo Tolstoy Russian novelist and moral thinker, 1828 to 19101%Henry David Thoreau American essayist and naturalist, 1817 to 18621%Dorothy Day American journalist and Catholic Worker founder, 1897 to 19801%Laozi Chinese sage, c. 6th century BCE1%

Political views closest to Joseph Stalin

MaoismA Marxist-Leninist current built on peasant-based revolution and mass mobilization under…87%State capitalismUses a strong state to steer a market economy toward rapid growth, often limiting…85%Marxism-LeninismAims at a classless society through revolution and a single party ruling on behalf of…78%BonapartismAuthoritarian rule by a popular leader who claims to embody the nation, with plebiscites…75%

Read more about Joseph Stalin

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Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.